Claude Fretz | Sun Yat-Sen University (original) (raw)
Claude Fretz is Associate Professor of Shakespeare studies and early modern English literature at Sun Yat-sen University. His PhD is from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. His research has attracted funding in China, the UK, Germany, and Luxembourg.
Claude's primary research interest and area of publication lies with the dramatic works of Shakespeare in their Elizabethan and Jacobean contexts, and with their classical, medieval, and early modern sources. He is also interested in Shakespeare's global afterlives (especially adaptations), Restoration theatre, and interdisciplinary explorations of cultures of dreaming and sleeping.
He is the author of *Dreams, Sleep, and Shakespeare’s Genres* (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), a monograph which explores how Shakespeare uses images of dreams and sleep to define his dramatic worlds. Surveying Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories, and late plays, the book argues that Shakespeare systematically exploits early modern physiological, religious, and political understandings of dreams and sleep in order to reshape conventions of dramatic genre and to experiment with dream-inspired plots. In addition, he is co-editor of *Performing Restoration Shakespeare* (Cambridge University Press, 2023), a book which arises from an AHRC-funded research project and investigates how Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare used to be performed and how they can be performed for audiences today. He is also co-editor of *Narrating Dreams: Solution and Dissolution* (Wenshan Review of Literature and Language, 2024), a special issue which illuminates the social and political roles of dream narratives and invite us to investigate the telling and retelling of dreams as a practice that lends to, and borrows from, different social, spatial, environmental, gendered, and racialised imaginaries.
Claude has published various journal articles and book chapters on Shakespeare, early modern literature, representations of dreams and sleep in the Renaissance, modern theatre practice, and Restoration drama. His work has appeared in journals including Shakespeare, Critical Survey, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture 1660-1700, Cahiers Elisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies, Etudes Epistémè, Shakespeare Jahrbuch, and others.
He is a regular speaker and participant at international academic conferences. He has also given invited talks and public lectures in the UK, the USA, Germany, Luxembourg, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, and has been interviewed by science magazines as well as mainstream national newspapers. In addition, he has advised and collaborated with theatre companies in the UK, the USA, Germany, and China, including the world-famous Royal Shakespeare Company and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre.
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Books by Claude Fretz
Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
This book investigates how Shakespeare uses and adapts images of dreams and sleep to shape his dr... more This book investigates how Shakespeare uses and adapts images of dreams and sleep to shape his dramatic worlds. By examining comedies, tragedies, histories, and late plays, it reveals how Shakespeare deploys early modern understandings of dreams – rooted in medicine, philosophy, religion, folklore, and politics – to redefine dramatic conventions and experiment with innovative plot structures.
The book explores the rich cultural context of dreams and sleep in early modern England, examining how Shakespeare and his contemporaries creatively adapted these concepts from classical drama, medieval dream visions, and native English theatrical traditions.
Key Features:
* Offers fresh insights into Shakespeare's innovative use of dreams and sleep in his dramatic works.
* Explores the cultural and historical significance of dreams and sleep in early modern England.
* Analyses how Shakespeare reshaped dramatic conventions and experimented with plot structures.
* Appeals to a wide audience, including academics, students, teachers, and general readers interested in Shakespeare and his world.
Keywords: Shakespeare, dreams, sleep, drama, theater, early modern England, literary history, cultural history, genre, comedy, tragedy, history plays, late plays, romances, classical drama, medieval literature, English theatre.
Cambridge University Press, 2023
Performing Restoration Shakespeare embraces the performative and musical qualities of Restoration... more Performing Restoration Shakespeare embraces the performative and musical qualities of Restoration Shakespeare (1660-1714), drawing on the expertise of theatre historians, musicologists, literary critics, and-importantly-theatre and music practitioners. The volume advances methodological debates in theatre studies and musicology by advocating an alternative to performance practices aimed at reviving 'original' styles or conventions, adopting a dialectical process that situates past performances within their historical and aesthetic contexts, and then using that understanding to transform them into new performances for new audiences. By deploying these methodologies, the volume invites scholars from different disciplines to understand Restoration Shakespeare on its own terms, discarding inhibiting preconceptions that Restoration Shakespeare debased Shakespeare's precursor texts. It also equips scholars and practitioners in theatre and music with new-and much needed-methods for studying and reviving past performances of any kind, not just Shakespearean ones.
This special issue of The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture (Volume 17, Issue 2, 2024) sh... more This special issue of The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture (Volume 17, Issue 2, 2024) sheds fresh light on cultural and literary manifestations of dream narrations, based upon an explicitly interdisciplinary framework. It explores how dream narratives can be tools for different kinds of solution and dissolution, including self-discovery, social critique, and artistic expression. By rethinking questions of the participation of dreams in social, political, racial, and nationalist narratives, the collection presents itself as a contribution to our understanding of the roles of dreams within the social, spatial, and cultural imaginaries of different communities.
Articles and Chapters by Claude Fretz
The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture, 2024
This foreword discusses how dream narratives, as tools of meaning-making, connect individual expe... more This foreword discusses how dream narratives, as tools of meaning-making, connect individual experiences to collective imaginaries, for example through self-discovery and social critique. By drawing on examples from diverse contexts—including Native American cultures, psychoanalysis, literature, and cinema—this piece demonstrates how dreams, when narrated and shared, become powerful mechanisms for understanding human experience, challenging dominant narratives, and exploring the intricate relationships between personal imagination and broader social, political, and cultural structures.
Journal of Language and Communication, 2024
This article examines the multifaceted and evolving presence of Shakespeare's works on the global... more This article examines the multifaceted and evolving presence of Shakespeare's works on the global stage, and aims to identify and review promising new avenues of performance research. It explores how Shakespeare's plays are adapted to address contemporary political and social issues in Greece, analyzes how Malaysian productions blend Shakespearean texts with local cultural traditions and performance styles, and examines how rehearsal studies and practice-based research methods contribute to a deeper understanding of Shakespearean performance at the Folger Theatre (USA). The article challenges traditional notions of "authenticity" in Shakespeare studies, advocating for a more nuanced approach that embraces diversity and celebrates the dynamic interplay between Shakespearean texts and their diverse cultural contexts.
Keywords: Shakespeare, global Shakespeare, performance studies, cultural adaptation, political theater, cultural hybridity, practice-based research, rehearsal studies, international theater, intercultural exchange, Shakespearean performance, 21st-century Shakespeare.
Performing Restoration Shakespeare , 2023
Critical Survey, 2023
This article explores how Shakespeare combines dreams and animal symbolism to illuminate the unde... more This article explores how Shakespeare combines dreams and animal symbolism to illuminate the underlying motivations and character traits of his protagonists.
Two case studies are presented:
* Richard III and the Boar: The analysis examines Stanley's dream of a boar in Richard III, demonstrating how Shakespeare utilises the boar's rich cultural symbolism, which he aligns with Tudor propaganda, to construct a compelling image of the tyrannical Richard.
* Antony and Cleopatra and the Dolphin: The article investigates Cleopatra's dream of Antony as a dolphin in Antony and Cleopatra. This dream image, it argues, encapsulates Antony's mercurial and unpredictable nature, while simultaneously highlighting the tragic disconnect between Cleopatra's idealized perception of him and the demands of political and social reality.
Keywords: Shakespeare, dreams, animals, animal symbolism, character analysis, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra, Antony, Tudor history, cultural symbolism, dream studies, animal studies.
Shakespeare , 2023
This article examines Shakespeare's use of animal dreams – dreams of or by animals – in A Midsumm... more This article examines Shakespeare's use of animal dreams – dreams of or by animals – in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Building upon the Ovidian model of human-animal transformation, where animal imagery reflects and amplifies human character, the analysis demonstrates how Shakespeare adapts this classical framework for an early modern audience. The article combines close readings of the play with insights from early modern dream books, demonological treatises, and Christian iconography. It explores Hermia's serpent dream, focusing on its symbolic implications within the context of early modern serpent symbolism and Christian iconography. It also examines Bottom's oneirc metamorphosis into ass through the lens of classical sources, demonological treatises, and early modern animal symbolism. Ultimately, the article reveals how Shakespeare's creative use of Ovidian animal dreams contributes to the play's moral and aesthetic impact within the context of Renaissance culture.
Keywords: Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, dreams, animal dreams, Ovid, Metamorphoses, animal symbolism, early modern England, Renaissance literature, dream interpretation, Christian iconography, demonology.
Eprint available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KBIXVQUPBPIKY8YAYNN7/full?target=10.1080/17450918.2022.2073385
Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies , 2022
This article examines the enduring appeal and performance potential of Restoration adaptations of... more This article examines the enduring appeal and performance potential of Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, focusing on William Davenant's Macbeth (c.1664) as a case study. Drawing upon theatre history, literary criticism, and practice-based performance scholarship, the analysis explores:
* The Necessity of Adaptation: How and why adaptations were crucial for the survival of Shakespeare's plays after the English Civil War, examining the impact of shifting theatrical tastes and the rise of musical and visual spectacle.
* The Reception of Restoration Shakespeare: How seventeenth-century audiences responded to the revised texts, the emphasis on spectacle, and the innovations introduced by Restoration playwrights.
* Modern Performance Practices: The challenges and triumphs of a professional production of Davenant's Macbeth at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C. (2018), and the resulting insights into the potential and pitfalls of staging Restoration Shakespeare today.
The article advocates for a selective and adaptive approach to performing Restoration Shakespeare, emphasising the exploitation of musical and visual spectacle while carefully considering the revisions made to Shakespeare's original text.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Restoration drama, Davenant, Macbeth, adaptation, performance history, theatre history, theatrical spectacle, early modern theatre, modern theatre practice, performance criticism, cultural history.
Träumen mit allen Sinnen / Dreaming with the Senses (Brill), 2021
Shakespeare, Colonna, and the Sensuous Dream: This article explores the multisensory and syne... more Shakespeare, Colonna, and the Sensuous Dream:
This article explores the multisensory and synesthetic dream experiences depicted in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) and Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), moving beyond traditional dream typologies to examine the raw, embodied nature of dreaming. By analyzing the vivid sensory depictions in both works, the article argues for a previously unrecognised influence of Colonna on Shakespeare.
The analysis demonstrates how Shakespeare, possibly inspired by Colonna's innovative approach, represents dreams not just as reflections of early modern conceptualisations of dreams, but as multisensory realisations of love and desire. This connection is further supported by evidence of topographical similarities, shared imagery, and comparable dream framing devices between the two works.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Colonna, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, dreams, senses, sensory experience, synesthesia, early modern literature, literary influence.
Zeiterfahrung im Traum [The Experience of Time in Dreams] (Brill), 2021
This paper examines how Shakespeare employs dreams and their unique temporal and spatial logic to... more This paper examines how Shakespeare employs dreams and their unique temporal and spatial logic to generate comedic and tragic confusion in his plays. Unlike previous studies that have analysed time, space, and dreams in isolation, this research explores the interconnectedness of these concepts. Focusing on A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, and Cymbeline, the paper demonstrates how Shakespeare utilises dreamlike scenarios – characterized by distorted time, shifting locations, and illusory realities – to create moments of disorientation and uncertainty for his characters.
Keywords: Shakespeare, dreams, time, space, temporal distortion, spatial disorientation, comedy, tragedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Cymbeline.
Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, 2019
This article challenges the notion of a radical break between pre- and post-Civil War English the... more This article challenges the notion of a radical break between pre- and post-Civil War English theater by examining how Thomas Shadwell and his collaborators, building upon Shakespeare's The Tempest, hybridized dramatic genre through spectacle in their 1674 The Enchanted Island. Focusing on the "Masque of Devils" in Shadwell's adaptation of The Tempest, the article demonstrates how Restoration theatre not only revised Shakespeare's text but also expanded upon his innovative use of spectacle and genre hybridity.
The article employs a combination of textual analysis, performance-as-research (including observations from a workshop at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), and consideration of Restoration staging practices to understand how Shadwell and his collaborators developed seventeenth-century "dramatick opera" and reinvigorated Shakespeare for a new generation of audiences.
Keywords: Shakespeare, The Tempest, The Enchanted Island, Restoration drama, Thomas Shadwell, John Dryden, Sir William Davenant, dramatick opera, spectacle, genre hybridization, performance history, Restoration theater.
Cahiers Elisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies, 2017
This article examines the pivotal role of dreams in shaping the tragic trajectory of Shakespeare'... more This article examines the pivotal role of dreams in shaping the tragic trajectory of Shakespeare's Richard III. By capitalizing on the early modern uncertainty surrounding the nature of dreams – whether natural or supernatural – Shakespeare strategically employs dream imagery and dream devices to explore the material and spiritual consequences of his characters' actions.
The analysis demonstrates how dreams amplify the characters' ambitions, crimes, and guilty consciences, ultimately sharpening the play's focus on human agency and the tragic consequences of unchecked ambition.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Richard III, dreams, tragedy, early modern England, dream interpretation, guilt, ambition, supernatural, human agency, tragic hero, drama, theatre.
Etudes Epistémè, 2016
This article examines how Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and King Lear explore the impact of insomni... more This article examines how Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and King Lear explore the impact of insomnia and hallucinations on their tragic heroes.
Focusing on the characters of Brutus and King Lear, the analysis investigates how sleeplessness and dream-like experiences, informed by early modern understandings of physiology, contribute to their mental, spiritual, and bodily suffering. Whereas Brutus’s vision of Caesar’s ghost is often interpreted as a supernatural visitation, I argue that it can be read as a psychophysiological hallucination caused by Brutus’s sleeplessness. I also propose that King Lear’s sleeplessness and the metaphorical description of his waking reality as a dream form part of Shakespeare’s design of Lear’s tragedy as one that is primarily concerned with the character’s experience of his suffering. By analyzing Brutus's vision of Caesar's ghost and Lear's descent into a dream-like reality, the article thus reveals how Shakespeare employs insomnia, waking dreams, and hallucinations as devices to heighten the characters' experiences of tragedy and suffering.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, King Lear, tragedy, insomnia, sleeplessness, hallucinations, dreams, early modern medicine, mental suffering, bodily suffering, tragic hero.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
This book investigates how Shakespeare uses and adapts images of dreams and sleep to shape his dr... more This book investigates how Shakespeare uses and adapts images of dreams and sleep to shape his dramatic worlds. By examining comedies, tragedies, histories, and late plays, it reveals how Shakespeare deploys early modern understandings of dreams – rooted in medicine, philosophy, religion, folklore, and politics – to redefine dramatic conventions and experiment with innovative plot structures.
The book explores the rich cultural context of dreams and sleep in early modern England, examining how Shakespeare and his contemporaries creatively adapted these concepts from classical drama, medieval dream visions, and native English theatrical traditions.
Key Features:
* Offers fresh insights into Shakespeare's innovative use of dreams and sleep in his dramatic works.
* Explores the cultural and historical significance of dreams and sleep in early modern England.
* Analyses how Shakespeare reshaped dramatic conventions and experimented with plot structures.
* Appeals to a wide audience, including academics, students, teachers, and general readers interested in Shakespeare and his world.
Keywords: Shakespeare, dreams, sleep, drama, theater, early modern England, literary history, cultural history, genre, comedy, tragedy, history plays, late plays, romances, classical drama, medieval literature, English theatre.
Cambridge University Press, 2023
Performing Restoration Shakespeare embraces the performative and musical qualities of Restoration... more Performing Restoration Shakespeare embraces the performative and musical qualities of Restoration Shakespeare (1660-1714), drawing on the expertise of theatre historians, musicologists, literary critics, and-importantly-theatre and music practitioners. The volume advances methodological debates in theatre studies and musicology by advocating an alternative to performance practices aimed at reviving 'original' styles or conventions, adopting a dialectical process that situates past performances within their historical and aesthetic contexts, and then using that understanding to transform them into new performances for new audiences. By deploying these methodologies, the volume invites scholars from different disciplines to understand Restoration Shakespeare on its own terms, discarding inhibiting preconceptions that Restoration Shakespeare debased Shakespeare's precursor texts. It also equips scholars and practitioners in theatre and music with new-and much needed-methods for studying and reviving past performances of any kind, not just Shakespearean ones.
This special issue of The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture (Volume 17, Issue 2, 2024) sh... more This special issue of The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture (Volume 17, Issue 2, 2024) sheds fresh light on cultural and literary manifestations of dream narrations, based upon an explicitly interdisciplinary framework. It explores how dream narratives can be tools for different kinds of solution and dissolution, including self-discovery, social critique, and artistic expression. By rethinking questions of the participation of dreams in social, political, racial, and nationalist narratives, the collection presents itself as a contribution to our understanding of the roles of dreams within the social, spatial, and cultural imaginaries of different communities.
The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture, 2024
This foreword discusses how dream narratives, as tools of meaning-making, connect individual expe... more This foreword discusses how dream narratives, as tools of meaning-making, connect individual experiences to collective imaginaries, for example through self-discovery and social critique. By drawing on examples from diverse contexts—including Native American cultures, psychoanalysis, literature, and cinema—this piece demonstrates how dreams, when narrated and shared, become powerful mechanisms for understanding human experience, challenging dominant narratives, and exploring the intricate relationships between personal imagination and broader social, political, and cultural structures.
Journal of Language and Communication, 2024
This article examines the multifaceted and evolving presence of Shakespeare's works on the global... more This article examines the multifaceted and evolving presence of Shakespeare's works on the global stage, and aims to identify and review promising new avenues of performance research. It explores how Shakespeare's plays are adapted to address contemporary political and social issues in Greece, analyzes how Malaysian productions blend Shakespearean texts with local cultural traditions and performance styles, and examines how rehearsal studies and practice-based research methods contribute to a deeper understanding of Shakespearean performance at the Folger Theatre (USA). The article challenges traditional notions of "authenticity" in Shakespeare studies, advocating for a more nuanced approach that embraces diversity and celebrates the dynamic interplay between Shakespearean texts and their diverse cultural contexts.
Keywords: Shakespeare, global Shakespeare, performance studies, cultural adaptation, political theater, cultural hybridity, practice-based research, rehearsal studies, international theater, intercultural exchange, Shakespearean performance, 21st-century Shakespeare.
Performing Restoration Shakespeare , 2023
Critical Survey, 2023
This article explores how Shakespeare combines dreams and animal symbolism to illuminate the unde... more This article explores how Shakespeare combines dreams and animal symbolism to illuminate the underlying motivations and character traits of his protagonists.
Two case studies are presented:
* Richard III and the Boar: The analysis examines Stanley's dream of a boar in Richard III, demonstrating how Shakespeare utilises the boar's rich cultural symbolism, which he aligns with Tudor propaganda, to construct a compelling image of the tyrannical Richard.
* Antony and Cleopatra and the Dolphin: The article investigates Cleopatra's dream of Antony as a dolphin in Antony and Cleopatra. This dream image, it argues, encapsulates Antony's mercurial and unpredictable nature, while simultaneously highlighting the tragic disconnect between Cleopatra's idealized perception of him and the demands of political and social reality.
Keywords: Shakespeare, dreams, animals, animal symbolism, character analysis, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra, Antony, Tudor history, cultural symbolism, dream studies, animal studies.
Shakespeare , 2023
This article examines Shakespeare's use of animal dreams – dreams of or by animals – in A Midsumm... more This article examines Shakespeare's use of animal dreams – dreams of or by animals – in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Building upon the Ovidian model of human-animal transformation, where animal imagery reflects and amplifies human character, the analysis demonstrates how Shakespeare adapts this classical framework for an early modern audience. The article combines close readings of the play with insights from early modern dream books, demonological treatises, and Christian iconography. It explores Hermia's serpent dream, focusing on its symbolic implications within the context of early modern serpent symbolism and Christian iconography. It also examines Bottom's oneirc metamorphosis into ass through the lens of classical sources, demonological treatises, and early modern animal symbolism. Ultimately, the article reveals how Shakespeare's creative use of Ovidian animal dreams contributes to the play's moral and aesthetic impact within the context of Renaissance culture.
Keywords: Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, dreams, animal dreams, Ovid, Metamorphoses, animal symbolism, early modern England, Renaissance literature, dream interpretation, Christian iconography, demonology.
Eprint available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KBIXVQUPBPIKY8YAYNN7/full?target=10.1080/17450918.2022.2073385
Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies , 2022
This article examines the enduring appeal and performance potential of Restoration adaptations of... more This article examines the enduring appeal and performance potential of Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, focusing on William Davenant's Macbeth (c.1664) as a case study. Drawing upon theatre history, literary criticism, and practice-based performance scholarship, the analysis explores:
* The Necessity of Adaptation: How and why adaptations were crucial for the survival of Shakespeare's plays after the English Civil War, examining the impact of shifting theatrical tastes and the rise of musical and visual spectacle.
* The Reception of Restoration Shakespeare: How seventeenth-century audiences responded to the revised texts, the emphasis on spectacle, and the innovations introduced by Restoration playwrights.
* Modern Performance Practices: The challenges and triumphs of a professional production of Davenant's Macbeth at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C. (2018), and the resulting insights into the potential and pitfalls of staging Restoration Shakespeare today.
The article advocates for a selective and adaptive approach to performing Restoration Shakespeare, emphasising the exploitation of musical and visual spectacle while carefully considering the revisions made to Shakespeare's original text.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Restoration drama, Davenant, Macbeth, adaptation, performance history, theatre history, theatrical spectacle, early modern theatre, modern theatre practice, performance criticism, cultural history.
Träumen mit allen Sinnen / Dreaming with the Senses (Brill), 2021
Shakespeare, Colonna, and the Sensuous Dream: This article explores the multisensory and syne... more Shakespeare, Colonna, and the Sensuous Dream:
This article explores the multisensory and synesthetic dream experiences depicted in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) and Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), moving beyond traditional dream typologies to examine the raw, embodied nature of dreaming. By analyzing the vivid sensory depictions in both works, the article argues for a previously unrecognised influence of Colonna on Shakespeare.
The analysis demonstrates how Shakespeare, possibly inspired by Colonna's innovative approach, represents dreams not just as reflections of early modern conceptualisations of dreams, but as multisensory realisations of love and desire. This connection is further supported by evidence of topographical similarities, shared imagery, and comparable dream framing devices between the two works.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Colonna, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, dreams, senses, sensory experience, synesthesia, early modern literature, literary influence.
Zeiterfahrung im Traum [The Experience of Time in Dreams] (Brill), 2021
This paper examines how Shakespeare employs dreams and their unique temporal and spatial logic to... more This paper examines how Shakespeare employs dreams and their unique temporal and spatial logic to generate comedic and tragic confusion in his plays. Unlike previous studies that have analysed time, space, and dreams in isolation, this research explores the interconnectedness of these concepts. Focusing on A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, and Cymbeline, the paper demonstrates how Shakespeare utilises dreamlike scenarios – characterized by distorted time, shifting locations, and illusory realities – to create moments of disorientation and uncertainty for his characters.
Keywords: Shakespeare, dreams, time, space, temporal distortion, spatial disorientation, comedy, tragedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Cymbeline.
Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, 2019
This article challenges the notion of a radical break between pre- and post-Civil War English the... more This article challenges the notion of a radical break between pre- and post-Civil War English theater by examining how Thomas Shadwell and his collaborators, building upon Shakespeare's The Tempest, hybridized dramatic genre through spectacle in their 1674 The Enchanted Island. Focusing on the "Masque of Devils" in Shadwell's adaptation of The Tempest, the article demonstrates how Restoration theatre not only revised Shakespeare's text but also expanded upon his innovative use of spectacle and genre hybridity.
The article employs a combination of textual analysis, performance-as-research (including observations from a workshop at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), and consideration of Restoration staging practices to understand how Shadwell and his collaborators developed seventeenth-century "dramatick opera" and reinvigorated Shakespeare for a new generation of audiences.
Keywords: Shakespeare, The Tempest, The Enchanted Island, Restoration drama, Thomas Shadwell, John Dryden, Sir William Davenant, dramatick opera, spectacle, genre hybridization, performance history, Restoration theater.
Cahiers Elisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies, 2017
This article examines the pivotal role of dreams in shaping the tragic trajectory of Shakespeare'... more This article examines the pivotal role of dreams in shaping the tragic trajectory of Shakespeare's Richard III. By capitalizing on the early modern uncertainty surrounding the nature of dreams – whether natural or supernatural – Shakespeare strategically employs dream imagery and dream devices to explore the material and spiritual consequences of his characters' actions.
The analysis demonstrates how dreams amplify the characters' ambitions, crimes, and guilty consciences, ultimately sharpening the play's focus on human agency and the tragic consequences of unchecked ambition.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Richard III, dreams, tragedy, early modern England, dream interpretation, guilt, ambition, supernatural, human agency, tragic hero, drama, theatre.
Etudes Epistémè, 2016
This article examines how Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and King Lear explore the impact of insomni... more This article examines how Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and King Lear explore the impact of insomnia and hallucinations on their tragic heroes.
Focusing on the characters of Brutus and King Lear, the analysis investigates how sleeplessness and dream-like experiences, informed by early modern understandings of physiology, contribute to their mental, spiritual, and bodily suffering. Whereas Brutus’s vision of Caesar’s ghost is often interpreted as a supernatural visitation, I argue that it can be read as a psychophysiological hallucination caused by Brutus’s sleeplessness. I also propose that King Lear’s sleeplessness and the metaphorical description of his waking reality as a dream form part of Shakespeare’s design of Lear’s tragedy as one that is primarily concerned with the character’s experience of his suffering. By analyzing Brutus's vision of Caesar's ghost and Lear's descent into a dream-like reality, the article thus reveals how Shakespeare employs insomnia, waking dreams, and hallucinations as devices to heighten the characters' experiences of tragedy and suffering.
Keywords: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, King Lear, tragedy, insomnia, sleeplessness, hallucinations, dreams, early modern medicine, mental suffering, bodily suffering, tragic hero.
The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture, 2024
This special issue of The Wenshan Review (ESCI; SCOPUS; EBSCOhost; MLA International Bibliography... more This special issue of The Wenshan Review (ESCI; SCOPUS; EBSCOhost; MLA International Bibliography; THCI) scheduled to be published in June 2024, seeks essays of 6,000 to 10,000 words (including notes and bibliography) that explore the value and function of dream narratives. Literary, cultural, philosophical, and aesthetic traditions have long recognized the dream as a way of rearranging our lives symbolically and imaginarily, as a means of finding our way through to a different situation than the one we are in, and as a means of forming or reforming our identities. This special issue aims therefore to investigate how culturally shaped narratives of dreams may constitute, or lead to, solutions and/or dissolutions at the individual as well as at the collective and cultural level.
For more information, see: https://www.wreview.org/index.php/news/437-cfp-narrating-dreams-solution-and-dissolution-due-15-june-2022.html
Performing Restoration Shakespeare, 2023
Introduction to 'Performing Restoration Shakespeare' (Cambridge University Press, 2023), an edite... more Introduction to 'Performing Restoration Shakespeare' (Cambridge University Press, 2023), an edited volume on the history of Restoration Shakespeare in performance. The work takes a multi-disciplinary approach, with contributions from theatre historians, musicologists, and practitioners in theatre and music.
My thesis investigates the functions of dreams and sleep within Shakespeare’s wider design of com... more My thesis investigates the functions of dreams and sleep within Shakespeare’s wider design of comedy and tragedy. Methodologically, it combines its focus on genre with a strong historicist component in order to reconstruct the early modern understanding of dreams and sleep that influenced Shakespeare’s approach to this material. Comparing Shakespeare’s representations of dreams and sleep with those in classical culture, from which dramatic genre, dream theory, sleep theory, and the deployment of dreams within comic and tragic structures originally derive, I argue that Shakespeare uses devices of dreams and sleep to support his deviation from those classical conventions of comedy and tragedy that he found incompatible with his aspiration towards a fuller, darker, and more complex representation of human nature, behaviour, and character. To that effect, I discuss how dreams and sleep in Shakespeare’s comedies introduce tensions that are neither resolved nor absorbed by the respective ...
Études Épistémè, Dec 21, 2016
Drawing on the early modern physiological understanding of sleeplessness and hallucinations, this... more Drawing on the early modern physiological understanding of sleeplessness and hallucinations, this article examines how Shakespeare’s dramatic representations of insomnia and waking dreams support his tragedies’ iconic emphasis on bodily and mental suffering. To that end, I consider Brutus’s insomnia and the nightly appearance of Caesar’s ghost in Julius Caesar, as well as King Lear’s sleeplessness and his ontological uncertainty about whether his misfortune may be a dream. Whereas Brutus’s vision of Caesar’s ghost is often interpreted as a supernatural visitation, I argue that it can equally be read as a physiological hallucination caused by Brutus’s sleeplessness. Meanwhile I propose that King Lear’s sleeplessness and the metaphorical description of his waking reality as a dream form part of Shakespeare’s design of Lear’s tragedy as one that is primarily concerned with the character’s experience of suffering. In King Lear, I also show how ideas of sleeping and dreaming introduce tragicomic elements which, however, ultimately give further magnitude to the sense of pain and injustice.
Dreams, Sleep, and Shakespeare’s Genres
Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700
Whereas most scholarly work on Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare's works has focused... more Whereas most scholarly work on Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare's works has focused on textual changes, on the plays' political contexts, or on their musical settings, this article uses the example of the "Masque of Devils" in the 1674 Enchanted Island to show how Thomas Shadwell and his collaborators hybridized dramatic genre through spectacle. Furthermore, it argues that the integration of semi-operatic spectacle and generic innovation in the "Masque of Devils" was not purely a Restoration invention, but something that Dryden, Davenant, and Shadwell—with their aesthetic nous and political awareness—developed from Shakespeare's original Tempest. Rather than being a Restoration addition to the play, Shadwell's "Masque of Devils"—like Dryden and Davenant's shorter equivalent masque in the 1667 version (published in 1670)—is in fact a subtle iteration of a moment in 3.3 of Shakespeare's play, where Ariel appears as a harpy, accompanied by thunder and lightning. 3.3 marks one of the most generically indeterminate episodes in The Tempest, because even though it belongs to a play that the 1623 folio identifies as a comedy, it relies heavily on devices derived from tragedy. This article sets out to explore how Shadwell and his collaborators used a combination of spectacle and textual as well as musical revision to expand the original play’s tragic-comic dynamics. Uniquely, the article does not just draw on textual analysis, but also considers how genre hybridization manifests itself in performance. To achieve that, it takes into account likely staging conditions in the Restoration playhouses, before drawing on contemporary performance-as-research as a means of deepening our understanding of the generic category of “dramatick opera” and of the Restoration-era processes of revision that culminated in Shadwell’s Enchanted Island. The article’s final section incorporates observations made during a practice-based workshop on Shadwell’s 1674 adaptation of The Tempest that was held on 10–13 July 2017 at the Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, an indoor space based on Restoration-era drawings of an unknown playhouse, possibly by John Webb. By examining the connections, rather than the textual differences, between The Tempest and The Enchanted Island, this article also challenges the misperception that the Civil War and the subsequent resumption of theatrical activity marked a somehow radical break with pre-war dramatic activity. Despite the fact that a successful Restoration production of Shakespeare usually entailed substantial rewriting—Shakespeare was viewed as raw material that needed to be refined in terms of both language and dramaturgy—Restoration theatre in many ways marks a continuation of creative developments around spectacle, musicality, and genre that had begun in the Jacobean and Caroline eras.
Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies
Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 2021
Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 2020
science.lu, 2018
Interview with Claude Fretz As one of the most important poets of all time William Shakespeare... more Interview with Claude Fretz
As one of the most important poets of all time William Shakespeare keeps researchers busy worldwide. One of them is the Luxembourg national Claude Fretz.
Shakespeare & Beyond, 2018
Shakespeare's Globe Blog, 2017
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION, 2024
The article comprises three case studies examining Shakespearean productions across varied geogra... more The article comprises three case studies examining Shakespearean productions across varied geographical and methodological arenas, aiming to review and identify promising avenues for new directions in performance research. Through analyses of political adaptations in Greece, cultural hybridity in Malaysian productions, and practice-based research models (involving rehearsal studies) deployed at the Folger Theatre (USA), this article explores the mechanisms by which Shakespeare's works blend into different historical, political, and cultural contexts. In doing so, it advocates for a departure from the conventional emphasis on textual or performative authenticity in Shakespeare studies. By documenting how diverse values, practices, and experiences shape creative processes, it reveals these endeavours as dynamic networks of cultural-creative collaboration. Ultimately, this study transcends traditional geographical and methodological limitations, urging readers to recognise and celebrate the ever-evolving presence of Shakespeare in diverse cultures and media.